Knockdown shelf structure

ABSTRACT

A plurality of sheet metal shelves are detachably connected at their corners to cornerposts made of metal members by shelfsupporting clips. A plurality of vertically extending and vertically spaced open-ended sockets are provided on the inner surface of one angle member of each post. The clips each have a downwardly extending lower end portion received in one of the sockets, an intermediate horizontal extending shelf-supporting portion and an upwardly extending shelf holding upper end portion. The shelves each have reinforcing flanges extending downwardly from a body portion of the shelf along the ends and side edges of the shelves and the end flanges extend behind and engage the shelf-holding end portions of the clips and rest on the intermediate portions of the clips. The end flanges have inwardly displaced portions providing horizontal clearance for the sockets to enable the shelves to be installed and removed.

United States Patent [72] lnventor Walter R. Peters 3922 S.W. 55th Drive, Portland, Oreg. 97221 [21] AppLNo. 829,671 [22] Filed June2, 1969 [45] Patented Sept. 28, 1971 [54] KNOCKDOWN SHELF STRUCTURE 1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.Cl. 108/109, 108/1ll,248/l48A [51] lnt.Cl ..A47b57/08 [50] FieldofSearch 108/107, 109, 11 l, 144; 21 1/l48 A; 248/243 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,059,464 4/1913 Hine 108/107 1,302,882 5/1919 TerrelL. 108/109 2,909,289 10/1959 Laurie 108/107 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,442,485 5/1966 France 248/243 Primary Examiner-Francis K. Zugel Attorney-Buckhorn, Blore, Klarquist and Sparkman ABSTRACT: A plurality of sheet metal shelves are detachably connected at their comers to comerposts made of metal members by shelf-supporting clips. A plurality of vertically extending and vertically spaced open-ended sockets are provided on the inner surface of one angle member of each post. The clips each have a downwardly extending lower end portion received in one of the sockets, an intermediate horizontal extending shelf-supporting portion and an upwardly extending shelf holding upper end portion. The shelves each have reinforcing flanges extending downwardly from a body portion of the shelf along the ends and side edges of the shelves and the end flanges extend behind and engage the shelf-holding end portions of the clips and rest on the intermediate portions of the clips. The end flanges have inwardly displaced portions providing horizontal clearance for the sockets to enable the shelves to be installed and removed.

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WALTER R. PETER S INVENTOR BUCK/1019M BLORE, KLAROU/ST 8 SPAR/(MAN ATTORNEYS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Knockdown metal shelf structures including a plurality of metal shelves have attained wide usage in industry for holding packaged goods, tools and the like, and are also employed extensively in private homes for similar purposes. In general, such shelf structures have included cornerposts of angle iron or other metal and sheet metal shelves having reinforcing flanges along their side and ends. An angle portion of each post has been provided with a plurality of vertically spaced boltholes and the ends of the side or end flanges have been provided with matching holes.

Assembly of the structures just described has required the insertion of a bolt in each of at least four sets of aligned holes for each shelf and threading and tightening a nut on each bolt. This is a time-consuming operation and the bolts must be removed and reinstalled each time a shelf is moved or the structure disassembled and reassembled.

Summary In accordance with the present invention the comers of the shelves are secured to the cornerposts by clips, each having a downwardly extending end inserted in one of a plurality of vertically spaced sockets provided on an angle member of an angular metal post. The clips have an intermediate shelf-supporting portion and an upwardly extending shelf-holding end portion.

The reinforcing flanges on the shelves are formed to fit over and engage the shelf-holding portions of the clips and rest on the shelf-supporting portions of the clips so that the shelves securely connect the cornerposts together, when correctly positioned relative to the clips and moved downwardly to engage the flanges of the shelves with the clips. These flanges are also formed to provide horizontal clearance for any sockets above the desired position of a shelf so that the sockets do not interfere with the installation of a shelf. The clips and shelves of a complete shelf structure can be installed on the cornerposts in less time than that usually required for bolting even one shelf to the posts of prior metal shelf structures and can as quickly be disassembled.

It is therefor an object of the invention to provide an improved knockdown metal shelf structure which may be easily and quickly assembled and disassembled.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. I is an isometric view of the front and one end of two sections of the shelf structure of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary vertical section on an enlarged scale taken on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary vertical section taken on the line 3-- 3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is fragmentary horizontal section taken on the line 4-4 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 showing a modified cornerpost.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 shows two shelf structures and 12 each having four similar cornerposts l4 and five smaller shelves 16.

The cornerposts 14 have longitudinally extending angle members 18 and 20 disposed at right angles to each other, as shown most clearly in FIG. 4, and matching holes 22 are provided in the angle member 18 as shown most clearly in FIG. 3,

for receiving bolts (not shown) for securing adjacent shelf structures, such as the structures 10 and 12 of FIG. 1, together, if desired.

The angle member 18 of each of the posts 14 is of greater width than the angle member 20 and has a plurality of vertically spaced socket elements 24 formed integrally from the metal of such member. This can be accomplished by rapid punch press operations in which spaced parallel slits 26 shown most clearly in FIG. 3 are cut and the metal of the member 20 between such slits displaced inwardly of the angle post out of the plane of the body of the member 20 and spaced from such body. The result is a socket 27 having an opening at both its top and bottom portions and bounded by a surface of the post and a metal strip portion spaced from the surface of the post.

Shelf-supporting-and-holding clips 28 made of flat strips of metal each bent to provide a vertically extending lower end portion 30, an intermediate horizontally extending shelf-supporting portion 32 and a vertically extending shelf holding upper end portion 34, have their lower end portions 30 extending through and fitting selected sockets 27.

Each of the shelves 16 has similar reinforcing flanges 36 extending downwardly from and across the ends of the body portions of the shelves. These flanges terminate at their lower edges ininwardly turned portions 38 as shown most clearly in FIG. 2. The end portions 40 of the flange 36 are displaced inwardly of the shelf and away from the angle members 18 of the posts to provide vertical clearance for the socket elements 24 as shown most clearly in FIG. 4. The shelves 16 can be installed and secured to the posts by inserting the portions of a set of the clips 28 in sockets 27 at the same level on four of the cornerposts 14, positioning a shelf 16 above these clips and moving it downwardly so that the end portion 40 of each end flange 36 extends downwardly between the angle member 18 of a cornerpost l4 and the shelf-holding upper end of portion 34 of a clip 28. The portion 40 of the flange engages this upper end portion of the clip and rests upon the intermediate shelfsupporting portion 32 of the clip. The shelf is thus securely held in position on the posts.

The shelves 16 also have reinforcing flanges 42 extending downwardly from and along the front and rear sides of the body portions of the shelves. These reinforcing flanges have inwardly extending portions 44 at their lower edges which terminate in upwardly extending portion 46. The securing of a plurality of these reinforced shelves 16 to the posts as described above provides a stable assembled shelf structure, but angularly extending bracing strips 48 and 50 shown in FIG. 1 may be installed by bolts (not shown) extending through certain of the holes 22 in the angle members 18 or through holes 52 which may be provided in the angle member 20.

The holes 52 in the angle member 20 may be spaced vertically along this member as shown in FIG. 2 so that alternate holes 52 are in vertical alignment with the midportions of the socket elements 24 and the remaining holes 52 are positioned midway between the socket elements 24. The side-reinforcing flanges 42 of the shelves 16 may be provided with holes 54 which align with the holes 52 when a shelf 16 is installed so as to be supported by a clip 28. This enables s comer of a shelf 16 to be secured to a post 14 by a bolt in a conventional manner, for example, of a clip is lost, or the user of the shelf structure desires to employ conventional shelf-fastening bolts with or without using the clips 28. Even if bolts are used to fasten the shelves 16 to the posts 14, the clips 28 are of major assistance during assembly of the structures, since they can be employed to hole the shelves in position while installing the bolts.

The posts 14 employed for adjacent comers of the shelf structures 10 and 12 must be of left and right configuration since the angle members 18 and 20 are of different construction and size. It is noted, however, that the posts 14 are each symmetrical with respect to a plane through a midpoint between the ends of a post so that alternate cornerposts around the structure can be inverted to provide both the right and left configurations. It is therefor apparent that posts 14 can all be identical. It is also apparent from the above description of the shelf structure shown that the shelves 16 may also all be identical and that the clips 28 may likewise all be identical.

MODIFICATION OF FIG.

FIG. 5 shows a modified cornerpost 56 having an angle member 58 which, instead of having the socket elements 24 of FIGS. 2 to 4 displaced out of the metal of the angle member, has a U-shaped socket element with the arms of the element spot welded to the inner surface of the angle member 58 and the remainder of the socket element providing a metal strip portion spaced from the surface of the post to form the socket 27.

Otherwise the structure of FIG. 5 may be identical with the structure of FIGS. 2 to 4.

I claim:

1. A shelf structure comprising four cornerposts in the form of longitudinally extending metal angle members,

each angle member having vertically spaced portions punched inwardly to provide plural sockets open at both the tops and bottoms,

a removable clip for each of at least one set of sockets located at the same horizontal level,

each clip comprising a flat metal strip bent to provide a downwardly extending lower portion for downward insertion into its associated socket, an intermediate portion extending horizontally from said post for resting on the upper edge of the associated socket, and an upwardly extending portion,

a sheet metal shelf for said clips having a flat body portion and reinforcing flanges extending downwardly at its sides and ends and then bent inwardly to provide bearing surfaces,

the body and flange portions of the shelf adjacent each associated clip being bent inwardly sufficiently to provide clearance for the associated socket but leaving a loadbearing portion of an inwardly bent flange in supporting engagement with the horizontal portion of the associated clip. 

1. A shelf structure comprising four cornerposts in the form of longitudinally extending metal angle members, each angle member having vertically spaced portions punched inwardly to provide plural sockets open at both the tops and bottoms, a removable clip for each of at least one set of sockets located at the same horizontal level, each clip comprising a flat metal strip bent to provide a downwardly extending lower portion for downward insertion into its associated socket, an intermediate portion extending horizontally from said post for resting on the upper edge of the associated socket, and an upwardly extending portion, a sheet metal shelf for said clips having a flat body portion and reinforcing flanges extending downwardly at its sides and ends and then bent inwardly to provide bearing surfaces, the body and flange portions of the shelf adjacent each associated clip being bent inwardly sufficiently to provide clearance for the associated socket but leaving a load-bearing portion of an inwardly bent flange in supporting engagement with the horizontal portion of the associated clip. 